1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to magnetic memory apparatus employing hard disk drives, and, more particularly, to magnetic head suspensions for use in magnetic memory apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a magnetic head suspension, a magnetic head slider may be attached to a gimbal made of a relatively thin material, whereby the magnetic head slider can swing somewhat freely. To increase the pushing load to the magnetic head slider, which is fixed to the gimbal, the gimbal in turn is fixed to a load arm that is bent at a midpart thereof and supported by a dimpled part.
The gimbal and load arm have been previously constructed as distinct members. A drawback to this design is that the dimpled part supports the gimbal, such that the gimbal is displaced against the load arm. As a result, the magnetic head slider cannot have a high positioning accuracy.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-215513 describes a suspension having a unitary gimbal and load arm, and signal lines for the magnetic head that are formed on a surface of the suspension. To permit the slider to swing freely and to reduce the stiffness of the gimbal, the whole suspension is fabricated from thin sheet metal.
When the gimbal and the load arm are unitary, there is no problem of relative displacement between the gimbal and the load arm. However, the thin plate that reduces the stiffness of the gimbal also reduces the lateral stiffness of the suspension. Thus, the suspension may be deformed beyond the surface plane during operation, which lowers the positioning accuracy when the suspension is under a pushing load.